Appliance for use in sharpening safety razor blades



8 m 4 6 m M J WH w @imwihw hMq ,u 5 n u M 2 L M7 m r H F A 1. III.

A L WALTON APPLIANCE FOR USE IN SHARPENING SAFETY RAZOR BLADES FiledNov. 8, 1948 April 17, 1951 Patented Apr. 17, 1951 APPLIANCE FOR USE INSHARPENING SAFETY RAZOR BLADES Alfred Leonard Walton, Blackpool, EnglandApplication November 8, 1948, Serial No. 58,937 In Great Britain June28, 1948 4 Claims. 1

The invention relates to appliances for use in sharpening orre-sharpening safety-razor blades of the double-edged variety, theinvention being concerned with appliances of the type wherein thesharpening action is provided by the rotative movement of a plurality ofabrading, stropping or polishing rollers (hereinafter referred to assharpening rollers) in contact with an edge of the blade.

The object of the invention is to provide an appliance with improvedmeans of operations, ensuring that the surfaces of the sharpeningrollers in contact with the edges of the blade will always move, fromthe point of contact in a direction away from the said edges.

A further object of the invention is to provide an appliance havingmeans whereby the edges of a double-edged blade can be sharpened fromboth sides in one operation, that is to say, without the necessity forchanging the position of the blade.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an appliance inwhich the means in question are of simple form and reliable inoperation.

The appliance according to the invention comprises a lower frame part, asuperimposed cover part fitting slidably and detachably over the lowerframe part, two spaced sharpening rollers carried in fixed positions bythe lower frame part,

the distance between the axes of rotation of the said rollers beingsubstantially the same as the distance between the cutting edges of theblade to be sharpened, two rotatable sharpening rollers carried in fixedpositions by the cover part and distanced apart to substantially thesame extent as the sharpening rollers on the lower frame part and somounted that each roller on the cover part has peripheral contact withthe corresponding roller on the lower frame part when the two parts areplaced together, means for locating a blade on the lower frame part sothat its cutting edges will lie in the nips between the contactingsharpening rollers of the lower frame part and the cover part, and asingle driving roller arranged for engagement with an outside surfaceand having a spindle engaged in and movable along horizontally disposedguide slots in the lower frame part, the guide slots being of suchlength relatively to the distance between the.

rollers on the lower frame part that when the said driving roller isapplied. to the said outside surface and the appliance is moved ineither direction along the surface, the driving roller will rotate andmove along the slots into engagement with the one or the other of thesharpening rollers on the lower frame part, such rotary engagementcausing this sharpening roller to rotate in a direction away from thecorresponding cutting edge of the blade, and such rotation of the saidsharpening roller causing rotation, also in a direction away from thesame edge of the blade, of the corresponding sharpening roller on thecover part.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in which:

Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of the appliance, and

Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional view corresponding to Figure 1. l

The construction illustrated comprises a rectangular frame I in whichtwo spaced sharpening rollers 2 and 3 are rotatively carried, therollers being so disposed that their upper parts project above the frameand the distance between, their axes is the same as or slightly greaterthan the width of the blade to be sharpened.

The end portions of the frame I- are formed with depending lugs 4 and ineach of these lugs there is provided a slot 5 which extends parallellyto a line passing through the axes of the rollers 2 and 3, and in whichfreely engages one end of a spindle 6 upon which is fixed a-drivingroller 1. The axis of the driving roller 1 lies below the axes of thesharpening rollers 2 and 3 and the driving roller is of such diameterthat, by movement along the slots 5, it can be brought into surfacecontactvwitheither the roller 2 or the roller 3, but not withboth at thesame time. Means are provided for locating the razor blade so that theedges thereof to be sharpened lie in contact with the peripheralsurfaces of the rollers 2 and 3 at the correct angle. ,To this end, theframe I is provided with a centrally disposed cross-bar 8 carryingupwardly project= ing spaced pins 9 over'which the usual holes in theblade II] can be engaged. The cross-sectional size of the pins isslightly less than the size of the holes in the blade to prevent thebladefrom binding on the pins and to enable it to be easily applied andremoved. j The appliance also includes a box-like casing II with an openbase, the casing being of such dimensions that it can be placed, with avertical sliding fit, over the frame I, the latter thereby entering theopen base of the casing.

Two spaced sharpening rollers 12 and i3 are rotatively mounted withinthe casing ll,thes

rollersbeingarranged the same distance apart as the rollers 2 and 3 andin parallelism there;

3 with, so that, when the casing is applied to the frame I, the roller[2 will lie directly above and in contact with the roller 2, the sameapplying to the rollers l3 and 3.

The sharpening rollers 2, 3, l2 and I3 are made of or covered with asoft material such as leather or feltwhich may be dressed or impregnatedwith a suitable sharpening compound.

The drivingroller can be made of any suitable material so long as it hasthe ability to cause rotation of either one of the sharpening rollers 2and 3 when in contact therewith.

The appliance is used as follows:

The casing II (with its rollers 12 and 13) is lifted from the frame Iand the blade to be sharpened is placed over the pins 9 so that it restsby its cutting edges on the peripheral surfaces of the sharpeningrollers 2 and 3 The casing II is now fitted over the frame I so that thesharpening rollers ['2' and I3 come to rest on the cutting edges of theblades, these edges being thereby engaged in the nips of. the pairs ofrollers. The casing is now held between thumb and finger and the drivingroller 1 is presented to and pressed against a suitable flat surfacesuch as that of a wall or table top, whereupon the appliance as a wholeis moved to-and-fro on the said surface. Viewing Figure 1 for example,when the appliance is moved to the right, the driving roller 1' will berotated clockwise, causing this roller to move bodily to the left,relatively speaking, by reason of. the engagement of its spindle 6 withthe upper edges of the slots 5, thereby bringing the roller intoengagement with the sharpening roller Z. By further movement of theappliance to the right the driving roller will continue to rotateclockwise and thus impart an anti-clockwise rotary movement to thesharpening roller 2. By reason of the fact that the peripheral surfacesof the rollers 2 and f2 are resilient, the pressure applied to thecasing ll in the direction of the driving roller 1 will result in aslight flattening of the rollers at the contact point, thereby ensuringthat the roller [2 will be driven in a clockwise direction from theroller 2, and this in spite of the fact that an edge of the blade liesin the nip of the rollers. Both rollers 2 and I? will, thus, rotate in a7 direction away from the corresponding cutting edge of the razor blade,this edge being thereby sharpened from both sides simultaneouslywithoutfear of the rollers damaging the said edge or of the edgedamaging the surfaces of the rollers.

When the appliance is moved to the left, the

ing roller will continue to rotate anti-clockwise razor blades of thedouble-edged variety, the

' movement of the appliance to the left, the drivand thus impart aclockwise rotary movement I to the sharpening roller 3 which, in turn,for reasons already explained with reference to the rollers 2 and [2,will impart an'anti-cloclmise rotary movement to the sharpening rollerl3. Hence, the rollers 3 and [3 will both rotate in a direction awayfrom the corresponding cutting edge of the blade.

The amount of pressure exerted upon thecutting edges of the blade bythe'four sharpenin '4 e rollers will depend upon the degree of downwardpressure applied to the casing ll by'the user when reciprocating theappliance.

In short, in the arrangement described, the act of reciprocating theappliance will cause the pair of sharpening rollers 2 and [2 to rotatewhile the other pair 3 and I3 is stationary, and vice versa.

I claim:

1. An appliance for use in sharpening safetyappliance comprising a lowerframe part, a superimposed cover part fitting slidably and detachablyover the lower frame part, two spaced rotatable sharpening rollerscarried in fixed positions by the lower frame part, the distance betweenthe axes of the said rollers being substantially the same as thedistance between the cutting edges of the blade to be sharpened, tworotatable sharpening roller carried in fixed positions by the cover partand distanced apart to substantially the same extent as the sharpeningrollers on the lower frame part and so mounted that each roller on thecover part has peripheral contact with the corresponding roller on thelower frame part when the two'parts are placed to gether, means forlocating a blade on the lower frame part so that its cutting edges willlie in the nips between the contacting sharpening rollers of the lowerframe part and the cover part, a single driving roller arranged forengagement with an outside surface and having a spindle engaged in andmovable along elongated guide slots provided in the lower frame part andextending in parallelism with a plane passing through the axes of thesharpening rollers on this part, said guide slots being of such lengthrelatively to the distance between the sharpening rollers on the lowerframe part that when the driving roller is applied to the said outsidesur face and the appliance is moved in either direction along saidsurface, the driving roller will rotate and move along the guide slotsinto engagement with the one or the other of the sharpening rollers onthe lower frame part, such rotary engagement causing this sharpeningroller to rotate in a direction away from the corresponding cutting edgeof the blade, and such rotation of the said sharpening roller causingrotation, also in a direction away from the same edge of the blade, ofthe corresponding sharpening roller on the cover part. r r

2. An appliance according to claim 1, wherein rotation of eachsharpening roller on the cover part results solely from surface contactwith the corresponding sharpening roller on the lower frame part.

. the blade-locating means comprise upwardly pro jecting pins carried bya bar on thelow'er frame part and adapted to be engaged in the usualholes in the blade. V

A FREDLE N'ARD WALTON.

lee w es o fonpwi lgpa el 5 REFERENCES CITED Number The followingreferences are of record in the 1837352 file of this patent: UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 5 Number Name Date 1,201,094 Pinckney 001. 10, 1916Number 1,569,213 Baer Jan. 12, 1926 262,390 1,335,397 Holtzman Dec.8,1931 445,987

6 Name Date Willcqx Dec. 22, 1931 Willcox Nov. 17, 1936 Chester Feb. 11,1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Germany Aug. 14, 1912 Great BritainApr. 22, 1936

